Flooding damage to the West Coast Mainline has been fixed with services between Glasgow and Carlisle set to return on Friday. 

Despite the line being reopened, passengers are warned services will still be limited as a new 48-hour RMT strike kicks off. 

Services have been unable to run north of Carlisle on the busy line following a landslip that destabilised the foundations of the railway near Carstairs. 

The issue was prompted by heavy rain leading to flooding across vast parts of Scotland on December 30.

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Network Rail engineers had to remove hundreds of tonnes of loose material from beneath the line before installing over 300 tonnes of new stone to stabilise the embankment.

The track has also been relaid and the signalling systems were tested ahead of the line reopening.

Liam Sumpter, Network Rail Scotland route director, said: “Our engineers have worked as quickly as possible to complete these repairs and reopen the railway.

“This was a very challenging project, with hundreds of tonnes of material having to be removed and significant repairs made to over 40 metres of the railway.

“We appreciate the inconvenience the closure of the line has caused and we thank everyone for their understanding during these recovery works.”

Barry Milsom, executive director of operations and safety at Avanti West Coast, encouraged passengers to wait until Sunday when the train operator will return to a full timetable.

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He said:  “We’re pleased the West Coast Mainline has now reopened north of Carlisle following repairs to the tracks and would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding while Network Rail carried out this urgent work.

“While our services to and from Glasgow can resume on Friday 6 January, a significantly reduced timetable will be in place on this day, as well as Saturday 7 January due to strike action.

"Therefore, we strongly encourage customers travelling to and from Scotland to make their journeys on Sunday 8, Monday 9 or Tuesday 10 January when we’ll be operating our full timetable.